Nevill Holt festival to host world premiere of Boty documentary on 13 June

From the festival website: “Nevill Holt is proud to welcome a lineup of internationally renowned artists to Leicestershire this June for the inaugural Nevill Holt Festival. Building upon a decade of opera performances, the Festival will now also host classical music, theatre, art, jazz and contemporary music, alongside conversations with leading novelists, historians, broadcasters and artists.

Our afternoon celebration of British Pop art pioneer Pauline Boty (at 14:00 on Thursday 13 June in the Nevill Holt Theatre) begins with a world-exclusive showing of BOTY, the first-ever film to explore the fascinating life and times of the trail-blazing artist. This will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Dr Sue Tate, Natalie Gibson, Chila Kumari Singh Burman, Louisa Buck, Vinny Rawding and Lee Cogswell.

This documentary film celebrates the life of one of the most important British artists of the 20th century who within her art analysed, subverted and skewered Pop culture. The film documents the rise of Pauline Boty’s work, her artistic reputation and her legacy after many years of relative obscurity in the British art world following her early death in 1966.

Including newly discovered pieces and footage of Boty acting on screen, this film is the definitive portrait of one of Britain’s most vital and important artists.

Dr Sue Tate is an art historian, curator, author, and the leading expert on British Pop artist Pauline Boty. Author of the seminal book Pauline Boty: Pop Artist and Woman, Sue has curated several major retrospectives, and lectured on Boty around the world. Sue’s research has been instrumental in re-establishing Boty’s life and work, which was overlooked and forgotten over time. Through Sue’s work, Boty has rightfully been reinstated as one of the founders of British Pop art and one of the most enigmatic and important female artists of the 20th century.

Natalie Gibson is one of the most prolific and renowned contemporary textile designers, and was a close friend of Pauline Boty. Natalie trained at Chelsea School of Art and the Royal College of Art before teaching at Central St Martins where she has taught since 1962, founding and heading the BA Fashion Print course in 1981. Natalie has been instrumental in teaching and inspiring many of this country’s leading fashion designers, including Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, Matthew Williamson and Giles Deacon. She works closely with artists, such as Grayson Perry, and teaches design and print courses in India and China. Natalie was awarded an MBE in 2014 for her services to fashion. She also has her own clothing brand: Nat the Cat.

Chila Kumari Singh Burman is celebrated for her radical feminist practice which examines representation, gender and cultural identity. She works across a wide range of mediums including printmaking, drawing, painting, installation and film. In 2017, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate and Honorary Fellowship from the University of Arts in London, and in 2021 received an honorary doctorate from UCL. In 2022 she was awarded an MBE for her services to the arts. Burman has exhibited widely with notable solo shows held at the Mansard Gallery, Heal’s London; Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art; Output Gallery, Liverpool; Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool and Tate Britain, London. Her works are also held in the public collections of The Arts Council Collection, The British Council, The Science Museum, The Tate Collection, The V&A and The Wellcome Trust.

Louisa Buck is a writer and broadcaster on contemporary art. She is a Contributing Editor and London Contemporary Art Correspondent for The Art Newspaper and a regular reviewer and commentator on BBC radio and TV. Her articles have appeared in publications ranging from The Guardian and Vogue to Frieze and Artforum. Her books include Moving Targets 2: A User’s Guide to British Art Now, Market Matters: The Dynamics of the Contemporary Art Market and Owning Art: The Contemporary Art Collector’s Handbook (co-authored with Judith Greer). Louisa was a judge for the 2005 Turner Prize and is a founding member of The Gallery Climate Coalition.

Filmmakers Vinny Rawding and Lee Cogswell are part of the creative team at Mono Media Films and Channel X, who have produced documentary films on Peter Blake, The Style Council, Tubby Hayes and many more over the last decade. Both are long-term admirers of Pauline Boty’s work and have spent the last five years piecing together the story of Boty’s life, bringing the first film on this Pop art pioneer to the big screen.”

Further information for the festival including how to book tickets is available here: [link]

Further information
CELEBRATING PAULINE BOTY: BOTY FILM PREMIERE AND TALK
Thursday 13 June 2024 14:00
Nevill Holt Theatre
Market Harborough
Leicestershire
LE16 8EG

Tel:(01858) 437 451
Email: info@nevillholtfestival.com

Header photo of Pauline Boty by Michael Seymour, 1962

New industry trailer for forthcoming Pauline Boty documentary released

The new industry trailer for the forthcoming documentary film from Mono Media Films and Channel X, BOTY – The life and times of a forgotten artist (working title), was shown last night as part of the sold out Gazelli Talk: Pauline Boty From Canvas to Screen.

The evening included previews of documentaries showcasing Boty’s dynamic career in both art and acting alongside a panel talk with Cat Mayne (AD / Associate Producer), Lee Cogswell (Director), Libby Horner (Art Historian/Filmmaker), Marc Kristal (Author), Charles Mapleston (Filmmaker), and Vinny Rawding (Writer/Filmmaker) and was moderated by Travis Elborough (Author).

Mono Media / Chanel X, who have previously produced documentary films on Peter Blake, The Style Council, Tubby Hayes and more, have spent the last five years piecing together the story of Pauline Boty’s life and times to bring the first ever film on this Pop Art Pioneer to life on the big screen. Key figures interviewed for the film include Natalie Gibson, Celia Birtwell, Derek Boshier, Bridget Boty, Sir Peter Blake, Geoffrey Reeve and Sue Tate among many others.

The trailer is available to view here [link]

Author Marc Kristal reading from his new biography of Pauline Boty during last night’s sold out talk at Gazelli Art House. Photo courtesy of Mono Media

Promotional video for new Boty documentary released

Mono Media Films and Channel X have announced that they are currently in the process of conducting interviews for a forthcoming documentary on the life and work of Boty.
They have previously produced programmes on, among others, Paul Weller, The Style Council and Peter Blake.
You can see the original promotional video for “Pauline Boty: I Am The 60s” on Vimeo here [link] and keep up to date here via:

Instagram [link]
Twitter [link]
FaceBook [link]

New landmark eight-part BBC series includes work by Boty

Art that Made Us is a landmark eight-part series for BBC Two co-produced by the BBC and The Open University. Through 1,500 years and eight dramatic turning points, the series presents an alternative history of the British Isles, told through art.

Leading British creatives, including Simon Armitage, Anthony Gormley, Lubaina Himid, Maxine Peake and Michael Sheen join cultural historians to explore key cultural works that define each age.

Boty is represented in the final episode of the series, Brilliant Isles which “explores how the generation of artists who recorded the shocks of global war gave way in the 1950s and 1960s to an explosion of new voices from across the British Isles, reinventing the arts and creating a richer, more diverse culture. Young artists rebelled against the old establishment, kicking against the confines of class, sex, nation and race. Actress Lesley Sharp performs passages from Shelagh Delaney’s breakthrough play A Taste of Honey which brought the ordinary lives and unheard voices of working class women to a mainstream audience, while Chila Kumari Singh Burman explores the career of pop artist Pauline Boty.” [from the BBC website]

For further information including synopses, clips, broadcasting times and dates and link to iPlayer please see the BBC Programme page here [link]